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Fast Track Zionists - as Jews are leaving Israel in droves, the zionist state is shipping Peruvian Indians to man their colonial outposts on the occupied territories.
Zap -- You’re Jewish Hirsh Goodman
When it comes to the settlement movement,the
sky is now the limit,including a crash course of 12 working days
in how to transform from an Andes Indian into a settler Jew. The Ha'aretz newspaper's weekend magazine of July 19 carried a cover story about 90 Indians from villages tucked far up in the remote mountains of Peru who had been converted to Judaism in Lima in a record two weeks. They were then flown to Israel where they were sent directly to two Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Alon Shvut and Karmei Tzur, where they will study in yeshivah and pray, at the state’s expense, for the messiah to arrive. The 90, constituting 18 family units, remarkably, were converted by an official rabbinical delegation sent from Israel with the blessings of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Israel Lau. Though they cannot speak a word of Hebrew, the 90 were given Hebrew names. Though they have never heard of Theodor Herzl, they are ardent Zionists who do not doubt for a minute that Israel is the Jewish state. And while Israeli politics are a total mystery to them, as is the debate over the future of the territories, that Judea and Samaria belong to the State of Israel is beyond question. Why the 90 Peruvian Indians wanted to become Jewish was not made quite clear in the piece, other than a general sentiment that Abraham was the father of us all. What is made clear is that the 3,000-strong Peruvian Jewish community told the rabbinical delegation that they could convert whomever they want, as long as the converts don’t remain in Peru. The Jewish community, it was explained, has enough difficulties of its own without having to deal with the "socioeconomic" problems the new converts would have brought with them. One explanation for this passion to become Jewish, though, may be that a warm mobile home in the Judean Hills was a better propsect than scratching out a living in the Andes. Another is Sigundo Villanova, now Zerubavel Tzadkiya, a former Peruvian Indian who somehow arrived here in 1990 and moved to the radical West Bank settlement of Tapuah with his wife and six children. The children, who now have their own families, all continue to live on Tapuah, as do Zerubavel’s brother and his family. All are now firmly ultra-nationalist, messianic and determined to bring as many other Peruvian Indians over to Israel as possible. Adding to our numbers is admirable in these troubled times, but why a serious and staid Jewish scholar like Rabbi Lau would go along with the scheme is an enigma. One can understand the folks at Alon Shvut and Karmei Tzur being happy to get their hands on anyone prepared to join them. But it is hard to believe that Israel would send out an official rabbinical delegation to convert these people to a religion they know nothing about and bring them slap into the middle of a conflict they have no part in. To have done so is, frankly, incomprehensible and becomes all the more so when viewed in the context of the rabbinate’s attitude toward others who have tried to convert. Why, one wonders, does it take only two weeks to convert a Peruvian mountain Indian while tens of thousands of immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union, who have been here for a decade, serve in the army and have become the backbone of society, are put through the wringer before they are accepted as Jews? The criteria demanded of them for conversion are so strict that most simply cannot go through the process. In consequence they have to continue going to Cyprus to get married, and are buried outside the cemetery wall, even when they die for their country. And here we have people who don’t know a mohel from a shohet who are immediately inducted into what is supposed to be a non-proselytizing religion and brought to Israel to live on the dole. I am all for the ingathering of the exiles and I have nothing against Peruvians, Indian or otherwise. But I find it confusing when someone like Sigundo Villanova seems to get one up on someone as undeniably brilliant as Rabbi Israel Lau and on the government of Israel by circumventing the regular immigration route of the Jewish Agency. As always, it seems that when it comes to supporting the needs of the settlement movement, at the end of the day, the sky is the limit, including a crash course of 12 working days in how to transform from an Andes Indian into a settler Jew. The main requirement is that our 90 new brethren believe that all of the Land of Israel is ours and like their leader, the now-Zerubavel Tzadkiya, dividends will come down the road when the children and grandchildren, many of them, will make places like Tapuah thrive. Tapuah, apple in Hebrew, was once considered a rotten apple by the mainstream settler movement, a place inhabited by fanatics who adhered to the hate philosophy of the late rabbi Meir Kahane. The community was an embarrassment to serious Land of Israel idealists who claimed they had an aspiration to coexist with the Arabs. That they should now be bending even the most sacred rules to make the spirit of Tapuah thrive is a sign of just how desperate and confused the settler movement -- and the rabbinate that is effectively supporting them -- seems to have become.
How 90 Peruvians became the latest Jewish settlers The Guardian When a delegation of rabbis travelled to Lima to convert a group of South American Indians to Judaism, they added just one condition: come and live with us in Israel. As soon as these new Jews arrived in the country, they were bussed straight to settlements in the disputed territories. So how are they coping? Neri Livneh tracks them down.
In a prefab structure at a school in the West Bank settlement of
Alon Shvut, a few dozen people are sitting and singing a popular
Hasidic song: "The whole world is a very narrow bridge and
the main thing is not to be afraid." They are singing with
feeling, even though most of them don't understand a word of the
song. As is the custom in religious schools, the class is divided
into a men's section and a women's section. The women are wearing
hats and the men's heads are covered by knitted skullcaps. The men
and women alike have distinct South American Indian features. "We are of Indian origin," says Nachshon Ben-Haim, formerly Pedro Mendosa, "but in Peru, in the Andes, there is no Indian culture left. Everyone has become Christian, and before we became Jews, we also were Christians who went to church." The miracle of the creation of this community of new Jews has to be chalked up wholly and exclusively to the credit - or debit - of the chief rabbinate of Israel. At the order of the Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Israel Meir Lau, a delegation of rabbis travelled to Peru. During their two weeks in the country, they converted 90 people to Judaism, most of them of Indian origin. "We found a small river between Trujillo and Cajamarca and everyone immersed in it. We took the people from Lima to be immersed in the ocean and then we also had to remarry them all in a Jewish ceremony according to the halakha [Jewish religious law]," says Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, a judge in the conversion court and a member of the delegation. The rabbis converted only those who said they were willing to emigrate to Israel immediately. "We laid down that condition because in the remote areas where they live, there is no possibility of keeping kosher and it was important for us to ensure that they would live in a Jewish environment. In fact, there was no need for the condition because they were in any case imbued with a love of the land of Israel in a way that is hard to describe," says Rabbi David Mamo, the deputy president of the conversion court. "Because we saw their enthusiasm for the land of Israel, we understood that conversion was part of a complete process including aliyah [immigration to Israel], so we told them: just as you live in a community here, you should join a community in Israel, too," says Birnbaum. "Rabbi Mamo and I both live in Gush Etzion [a group of settlements south of Bethlehem] and we believe that when it comes to community-oriented settlements, there are none that can compare with Alon Shvut and Karmei Tzur [both in Gush Etzion], which said they would be willing to absorb the new immigrants." The 90 new immigrants, comprising 18 families, were taken straight from the airport to the two settlements. Leah Golan, director of the Jewish Agency department responsible for immigration, says: "We, as the Jewish Agency, bring to Israel anyone who has been defined as being entitled to aliyah - that is, anyone who has been recognised as a Jew by the chief rabbinate or the interior ministry. "Generally, the potential immigrants are in touch with our aliyah emissaries and are given very reliable information about housing, employment and education possibilities in Israel. But in Peru, we do not have an emissary: there is only a small Jewish community of about 3,000 people there, so we only have an office in Lima that is staffed by a local woman. Therefore, the Jewish Agency was not involved in any way in the decision about where these new immigrants would live or what kind of work they would do. All the decisions on those subjects were apparently made by the rabbis." Theoretically, the new Jews had the option of joining the Jewish community in Peru, but that was ruled out. "How can I put it without hurting anyone?" Birnbaum says. "The community in Lima consists of a certain socio-economic class and did not want them because they are from a lower level. There was a kind of agreement that if they were converted, they would not join the Lima community, so there was no choice but to lay down the condition that they immigrate to Israel." The new Jews have not encountered similar difficulties in the settlements, where they have been integrated smoothly. "Now, thank God, we live where the patriarch, Abraham, the number one Jew, roamed," says Ephraim Perez, who until two weeks ago, in Trujillo, Peru, was known as Nilo. It turns out that Peru also had an ancient Jewish forefather of its own: "It is known that Christopher Columbus was a Jew," Batya Mendel who, until two months ago, was a Peruvian citizen whose first name was Blanca says. "And since he was in Peru, many Jews have been born there." Columbus was Jewish? "They always say that about him in Peru, and he visited many places in Peru and left Jewish blood everywhere," says Mandel. "There are also a lot of Christian sects that obey the commandments since then. When we were Christians, we also observed all kinds of commandments, such as Pascha [sic] and Shavuot." So, in fact, are of Jewish origin? "No. In Peru everyone is a mixture of natives and all kinds of conquerors, but there was a great deal of Jewish influence through the Marranos [Jews living during the Spanish Inquisition who secretly kept their faith despite converting to Christianity] and through Columbus. When we were still Christians and went to the church we observed some commandments such as Shabbat and holidays." Rabbis Mamo and Birnbaum, along with officials of the settlements, refer to the 90 new Jews as the "third aliyah " as there were two previous groups who came over from Peru in 1990 and 1991. Batya Mendel decided, on the occasion of her immigration to Israel, to Hebraize not only her first name, but her surname as well: "I Hebraized my name to Mendel," she explains, "because every year in the 1990s, a rabbi named Miron Sover Mendel came to Peru at Passover and he would always spend a few days in Trujillo and a few days in Cajamarca and a few days in Lima, and teach us Judaism. He died about half a year ago, so when they asked me at the conversion about a name, I asked in his memory that my surname be changed to Mendel." What made you come to this settlement? "The Absorption Ministry told us to go here and thank God they sent us here," says Mendel. "This is the land of the patriarch, Abraham, and the people here are very nice."
Is that what you were told, I ask - that the majority of the Jews in Israel are religious? "Yes, the majority but not everyone. But if they all become fully religious and unite, the Messiah will come and the problems with the Palestinians will be solved because they will get out of here." Mendel's eyes glitter as she talks: "It will be the most wonderful day in the world when all the Arabs will become Jews and observe the commandments and love the Lord and when the Messiah comes, there will be no one in the land of our fathers who does not love the Lord and Judaism with all their heart." You only became a member of this nation a few months ago, and have been in the country less than two months, I say. Do you know that there are Arabs whose families have lived here for hundreds of years? "But God said that whomsoever becomes a Jew with a full heart and observes the commandments - only to a Jew like that will He give the land for generation unto generation." Ben-Haim is not bothered by the fact that by being sent to a settlement, he has also been effectively recruited to a particular political group: "We knew we were coming to a place that is called 'territories' because people we know immigrated earlier and are living in the settlements in the territories. But I have no problem with that because I do not consider the territories to be occupied territories. You cannot conquer what has in any case belonged to you since the time of the patriarch, Abraham." Ben-Haim says that after he finishes the Hebrew course, he may join the army, "because I wasn't in the army in Peru and that is something I lack, and also because I want to defend the country and if there is no choice, I will kill Arabs. But I am sure that Jews kill Arabs only for self-defence and justice, but Arabs do it because they like to kill." He bases this belief on his scientific view of Judaism: "The Arab has the instinct of murder and killing like all gentiles, and only Jews do not have that instinct - that is a genetic fact." But if you were not born a Jew genetically, don't you have that
instinct? "Maybe it was there, but it makes no difference because
now we are all Jews."
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